• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

VietNam Breaking News

News from Vietnam

  • Home
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Society
  • Entertainment
  • Sports
  • Travel
  • Tech

Hong Kong: Tiananmen Square vigil group disbands amid crackdown

January 25, 2021 by www.dw.com

The pro-democracy group Hong Kong Alliance has decided to disband as pressure from Beijing continues, the group said on Saturday.

The activist collective, dubbed the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China, is the latest to buckle under the strain of a crackdown by Chinese authorities.

Factions aligned with Beijing have ramped up pressure after pushing through a sweeping national security law in the once largely autonomous enclave.

The majority of the members of the pro-democracy group voted for disbandment. Several of its leaders are already in jail for having taken part in the city’s dissenting democracy movement.

“This is a very painful dissolution,” said Tsang Kin-shing, a member of the alliance, speaking with news agency AFP. “The government uses all kinds of laws to force civil society groups to disband.”

  • Students clean the Pillar of Shame monument at the University of Hong Kong

    Hong Kong marks Tiananmen anniversary — in pictures

    Cleaning the Pillar of Shame

    Hong Kong students clean the Pillar of Shame statue on the 32nd anniversary of the massacre on Tiananmen Square, which officially left 300 people dead, according to government statistics, after the Chinese military brutally suppressed protests in support of democracy. Independent international estimates put the toll at several thousand.

  • Police officers march on Victoria Park in Hong Kong

    Hong Kong marks Tiananmen anniversary — in pictures

    Police march on Victoria Park

    Police warned Hong Kong residents not to attend the banned Victora Park memorial event Friday. In years past, tens of thousands of people gathered in Victoria Park to honor the victims of the Tiananmen Square massacre, which occurred 32 years ago.

  • Police officers raise warning banners at Hong Kong Victoria Park

    Hong Kong marks Tiananmen anniversary — in pictures

    Police warning

    Police officers banners referenced the national security law imposed by Beijing. They warned that Hong Kong residents gathering in Victoria Park to mark the anniversary could face prosecution. Officers arrested an organizer of the annual candlelight vigil.

  • People hold up their phones with the light

    Hong Kong marks Tiananmen anniversary — in pictures

    Vigils with smartphones …

    Historically, candles were lit at 8 p.m., with a minute’s silence at 8:09 p.m. to signify the year 1989. After police closed Victoria Park, people used the lights on their cellphones (seen here in the Causeway Bay district) to signal their support for democracy commemoration of the Tiananmen victims in China.

  • A woman holds candles in the Causeway Bay district of Hong Kong

    Hong Kong marks Tiananmen anniversary — in pictures

    … and traditional candlelight

    A woman holds candles in the Causeway Bay district of Hong Kong to remember the Tiananmen Square victims. After police closed Victoria Park, Hong Kong residents around the city found their own ways to mark the massacre of students.

  • Police move to disperse Hong Kong residents gathering in the Causeway Bay district of Hong Kong.

    Hong Kong marks Tiananmen anniversary — in pictures

    Disrupting memorial gatherings

    Police move to disperse Hong Kong residents gathering in the Causeway Bay district of Hong Kong. Authorities had cordoned off the traditional gathering place Victoria Park, citing fears over coronavirus.

    Author: Amanda Rivkin

Targeted with charges of subversion

Police froze assets of HK$2.2 million ($283,000/€241,000) belonging to the group after charging members with inciting subversion.

Under the Hong Kong national security law, anything deemed to be subversive by Chinese authorities can be punished with up to life in jail.

Albert Ho and Lee Cheuk-yan, two of the alliance’s leaders, are already in jail under similar charges following the large-scale anti-government protests in 2019 . They signed a document calling for the group to disband amid “the current social environment.”

“I still hope to show Hong Kong Alliance’s beliefs to the world and continue this movement that has already lasted for 32 years,” wrote the group’s jailed vice chairwoman, Chow Hang Tung, on her Facebook page.

Watch video 02:07

Hong Kong arrests organizer of Tiananmen massacre vigil

Covering up the 1989 crackdown

The group was founded in May 1989 to support the pro-democracy student movement in Beijing. A month later, the army moved in and crushed the protests in the city’s central Tiananmen Square. An official death toll stands at 300, but witnesses say thousands may have died.

The government subsequently scrubbed all memory of the event from the official record, but the Hong Kong-based group kept it alive by holding annual candlelight vigils on June 4. They would also use the events to call on China’s leaders to “end one-party rule” and to “build a democratic China.”

National security officials informed the group earlier in the year that they were investigating it under the new law. They requested documents and lists of its membership, but the alliance refused to comply, arguing that it was illegal.

Police then brought charges of subversion against the group’s leaders, leading to a heavier clampdown.

Watch video 02:55

Tiananmen anniversary: Policing collective memory

ab/rs (AFP, Reuters)

  • Google is temporarily closing ALL of its China offices and restricting business travel to China and Hong Kong to prevent spread of deadly coronavirus
  • 'This isn't a random act': Explosive claims the masked vandals who destroyed Melbourne's iconic Hosier Lane were Chinese agents furious about pro-Hong Kong graffiti
  • Advocacy Group: China Poses Dire Threat to International Human Rights System
  • Jiang Zemin death rumours spark online crackdown in China
  • China's Xi tells Trump Beijing will defeat coronavirus as doctor's death sparks outcry
  • 'He wasn't allowed to speak, or even die': Fury after Beijing 'cover up' death of coronavirus whistle-blower doctor as Chinese residents pay tribute to 'hero' medic
  • WHO team arrives in China as Wuhan coronavirus deaths top SARS
  • Cruise ship outbreak worsens as China coronavirus cases appear to level off
  • There’s a lesson for luxury in the coronavirus crisis
  • Where’s Xi Jinping? China's leader commands coronavirus fight from safe heights
  • Wuhan coronavirus: Confirmed cases top 20,000 as China marks deadliest day
  • Xi Jinping tells Donald Trump Beijing will defeat coronavirus as doctor's death sparks outcry
Hong Kong: Tiananmen Square vigil group disbands amid crackdown have 907 words, post on www.dw.com at January 25, 2021. This is cached page on VietNam Breaking News. If you want remove this page, please contact us.

Filed Under: News China, Hong Kong, national security law, Hong Kong Alliance, Tianamen Square, vigil

Primary Sidebar

RSS Recent Stories

  • Microplastic pollution found in Đà Nẵng air
  • Market likely to expand bearish trend: analysts
  • Golden day in swimming for VN
  • SEA Games 31: Vietnam top Group A after 1-0 win over Myanmar in men’s football
  • Fifth Vietnam – Cambodia Defense Policy Dialogue held
  • SEA Games 31: Vietnam defeat Cambodia in opener of men’s beach volleyball

Sponsored Links

  • Major crash led to suspension of its Tesla Model 3 by taxi company
  • After Tesla, SpaceX workers come forward to speak on sexual harassment
  • Wi-Fi range extender to strengthen network coverage and internet speeds
  • apple: How to capture screenshot on Apple iPhone just by tapping back panel
  • EU Parliament backs tough new rules to rein in US tech giants
  • Carville: ‘Strap in People’ — January 6 Probe Will Expose Trump Was Behind a ‘Massive Criminal Act’
  • Warren: SCOTUS ‘Has Lost the Respect of the American People’ — We Need More Justices
  • Summers: Combatting Inflation Will ‘Require Substantially More’ Than What Fed Is Doing
  • Bratton: Lax District Attorneys, ‘Most of Them Funded by George Soros’ ‘Are Destroying the Criminal Justice System’
  • WATCH: Sheriff’s Deputies in Maryland Rescue Woman from Frigid Waters
Copyright © 2022 VietNam Breaking News. Power by Wordpress.
Home - About Us - Contact Us - Disclaimers - DMCA - Privacy Policy - Submit your story